I have had a nasty toothache for about a week, and it has severely affected my sleep quality. It has been impossible to sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time. Not only have I been sleeping lighter, but my dreams have been bad. I have had to watch or listen to bad things happen to various creatures. Those dreams have been so disturbing that it has been hard to fall asleep again after them.
This weekend, the infected part finally burst open and the toothache calmed down. I slept peacefully the night before Saturday with no bad dreams.
After a WBTB this morning, I got a nasty dream about bleeding, pain, and disgusting things happening to my body. I woke up to find out that my period was starting.
The physical pain must have influenced my dreams. I wonder how common this is.
I was fairly seriously ill last year, and it definitely showed up in my dreams.
If my real body is in physical pain, I can’t feel it at all during REM atonia/sleep paralysis; so the point during waking at which I regain physical sensation is very noticeable (i.e. things suddenly start to hurt).
Were you still in the dream where the pain started to come back? I have noticed that the bad experiences lately have all been at the end of the dreams, directly before waking up!
I think the dream ended about 1 or 2 seconds before the pain came back.
I’ve just looked back through the public online version of my dream journal, and I see that I’ve censored all the dreams with illness incorporation. (My offline dream journal, which includes the “snipped” elements, does have them).
I have asked for an appointment with a dentist, they haven’t answered yet.
Posting about my own health is just mildly uncomfortable. Dreams about other people’s health get censored, but I usually leave a “hint” somewhere in the choice of words in the DJ entry. Other people’s personal issues is the only thing I never post.
Did you also record more general bad dreams while you were ill?
If I have a migraine or am sick, then my dreams can go anywhere between abstract craziness to nightmaric. Sickness means sweaty dreams, but perhaps the nightmares are just to help sweat out the sickness?
I’ll agree pain manifests bad dreams, but I don’t think I’ve ever been injured severely enough before to have bad dreams by it. Other than migraines, and I always assumed they came under the same category as fever dreams.
